James Duffield Harding visited Italy first in 1824 and returned often, making sketches to publish as illustrations in travel books and as instructional tools in conjunction with his work as a drawing teacher. In this drawing he renders with precision the towers, parapets, and arcades of a medieval side street in the city of Bologna. An orange-striped canopy frames a cluster of peasants below, so that the bright colors of their garments become the picture’s focal point. Spare application of paint against a colored paper background adds depth to this scene, and such use of toned paper, which Harding pioneered, was soon widely adopted by other artists.